Thomas Jefferson Papers
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Thomas Jefferson’s Deposition in Fry v. Bell, 9 March 1821

Deposition in Fry v. Bell

The deposition of Thomas Jefferson taken at his own house in the county of Albemarle and the Commonwealth of Virginia on the 9th day of March 1821. to be read as evidence on the trial of a certain action of Ejectment now depending and undetermined in the Greenup circuit court in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, wherein John Doe, on the demise of John Fry and others is plaintiff & Thomas & Samuel Bell are defs

This deponent being of lawful age & first duly sworn, deposeth and saith

That he has been acquainted with the family of the Fry’s who lived in this county from his earliest infancy, that he remembers seventy years ago Joshua Fry, who had been a Professor of Wm & Mary College was then an elderly man, and resided in this county: that at the commencement of hostilities against the French in the year 1754.1 a regiment was raised for the defence of the frontiers, which the sd Joshua was appointed to command as Colonel: that he accordingly proceeded on the command and died in it the same year, and was succeeded by the late President Washington: that he left an eldest son John Fry & other sons & daughters, having made a will of which this deponent’s father was an executor: that John Fry his eldest son succeeded to the family seat on Hardware in this county, but whether by inheritance or by the will he knows not, that he continued to live there until his death, the precise epoch of which event he is not able to state, from any circumstance within his recollection: he remembers to have visited him at that place about the year 1766.2 or a little earlier or later, and he thinks he did not live long after that, and is confident his death was before the beginning of the revolution, and consequently before the change in the course of descents in land which3 was not until after the commencement of the revolution; that he left some family, but what precisely this deponent does not know, having for 18. or 20 years following been very much out of the county & out of the state & some years in Europe: that during his absence the family grew up and removed so that he had no opportunity of knowing them; that he has since been acquainted with one of them, Joshua, now, as he supposes living in Kentucky, but whether he was the only son, or the eldest son, he knows not. that he remembers to have heard of the right of the family or some of them to lands in the Western country, but how much, where or to whom it passed he does not know, but understood it to be founded on the right of their ancestor Colo Joshua Fry aforesaid and the military command in which he died. and further this deponent saith not.

Th: Jefferson

Virginia. Albemarle county to wit.

We the subscribers two of the justices of the peace for the said county hereby certify that the foregoing deposition of Thomas Jefferson was, in obedience to a Dedimus to us directed, which we herewith inclose, duly taken, subscribed and sworn to before us, at his own house at Monticello in the county aforesaid on the 9th day of March 1821.

Given under our hands & seals this 9th day of March 1821.

John Watson Seal
Ths J. Randolph Seal

MS (M. E. Sparks, Ashland, Ky., 1975); in TJ’s hand, signed by TJ, Watson, and Randolph. Tr (ViU: TJP); later copy on lined paper. Enclosure not found.

John Fry (1737–78), the son of Joshua Fry, served as the coroner and sheriff of Albemarle County, where he died (Ellen Frye Barker, Frye Genealogy [1920], 146; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 197; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 1:5; Williamsburg Virginia Gazette [Purdie & Dixon], 15 Feb. 1770).

Thomas Bell (1789–1862), blacksmith and farmer, was born in Kentucky. He owned three slaves in 1820, four in 1850, and in 1860 his real estate and personal property were valued at $4,840 and $17,722, respectively (DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Greenup Co., 1820, Ohio Co., 1840–60, 1850 slave schedules; James R. Hardin, The David French Patent and The Vancouver Error: Study in Cause and Effect [2011], 28–34; gravestone inscription in Old Bell Cemetery, Buford, Ky.).

Samuel Bell (1786–1857), farmer, was a native of Virginia. He owned six slaves in 1820, and three decades later he owned eleven slaves and real estate worth $16,000 (DNA: RG 29, CS, Ky., Greenup Co., 1820, Jefferson Co., 1850, 1850 slave schedules; Hardin, David French Patent, 28–34; gravestone inscription in Bell Cemetery, Louisville, Ky.).

Joshua Fry (ca. 1700–54), educator and surveyor, was born in Somersetshire, England, educated at Oxford University, and by 1729 was in Virginia as master of the grammar school at the College of William and Mary. He was the college’s professor of mathematics and natural history, 1731–37. By 1744 Fry settled in what soon became Albemarle County, and he served as the new county’s first presiding justice and one of its first representatives in the House of Burgesses. As county surveyor, he worked with TJ’s father, Peter Jefferson, to extend the North Carolina–Virginia boundary line in 1749, and the two collaborated on a 1751 map of Virginia that bears their names. Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie appointed Fry a commissioner to negotiate with the Indians in 1752, and two years later he was chosen as colonel in command of frontier militia, with George Washington as his second in command. Fry died following an accident while leading his troops at Wills Creek (later Cumberland), Maryland (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, repr. 1968, 20 vols. in 10 description ends ; William and Mary Provisional List description begins A Provisional List of Alumni, Grammar School Students, Members of the Faculty, and Members of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. From 1693 to 1888, 1941 description ends , 49; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 78, 81, 83; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 197).

Joshua Fry (ca. 1760–1839), educator, was the son of John Fry and grandson of Joshua Fry. He was born in Albemarle County and served in its militia during the Revolutionary War. Fry represented Albemarle for one term in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1785–86, and opened a school soon thereafter in Danville, Kentucky. By 1823 he was a classics instructor at Centre College in that city (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 44 vols. description ends , 28:302, 41:484–5; Barker, Frye Genealogy, 146, 147; Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 197–8; James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark [2002], 176–7; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 156; The Pension Roll of 1835 [1835; indexed ed., 1992], 3:281; Frankfort Argus of Western America, 1 Oct. 1823).

As heir to the elder Joshua Fry, on 15 Dec. 1772 John Fry was awarded patents for two tracts of land, one of 2,034 acres and the other of 1,525 acres, in what was then part of Fincastle County, Virginia, but later became greenup County, Kentucky (Vi: RG 4, Virginia Land Office Patent Book, 41:90, 91). Joshua Fry named TJ’s father, Peter Jefferson, an executor of his will, which was admitted to probate on 8 Aug. 1754 and which bequeathed John Fry the family seat on the Hardware River (Albemarle Co. Will Book, 2:15–7).

TJ drafted the change in the course of descents in land that eliminated primogeniture for intestate estates (bill no. 20 in a grouping of documents on “The Revisal of the Laws 1776–1786,” PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 44 vols. description ends , 2:391–3). A dedimus, or dedimus potestatem, is a “commission issuing from the court before which a case is pending, authorizing a person named in the commission to compel the attendance of certain witnesses, to take their testimony on the written interrogatories and cross-interrogatories attached to the commission, to reduce the answers to writing, and to send it sealed to the court issuing the commission” (Black’s Law Dictionary description begins Bryan A. Garner and others, eds., Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th ed., 1999 description ends ).

1Tr: “1756.”

2Reworked from “1776.”

3TJ here canceled “he believes.”

Index Entries

  • Bell, Samuel; andFry v. Bell search
  • Bell, Samuel; identified search
  • Bell, Thomas (of Kentucky); andFry v. Bell search
  • Bell, Thomas (of Kentucky); identified search
  • French and Indian War search
  • Fry, John (1737–78); andFry v. Bell search
  • Fry, John (1737–78); identified search
  • Fry, Joshua (ca.1700–54); andFry v. Bell search
  • Fry, Joshua (ca.1700–54); identified search
  • Fry, Joshua (ca.1760–1839); andFry v. Bell search
  • Fry, Joshua (ca.1760–1839); identified search
  • Fry v. Bell search
  • Jefferson, Peter (TJ’s father); mentioned search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Public Service; and revision of Va. laws search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Deposition inFry v. Bell search
  • Kentucky; land disputes in search
  • Randolph, Thomas Jefferson (TJ’s grandson; Jane Hollins Nicholas Randolph’s husband); witnesses documents search
  • Virginia; law in search
  • Virginia; laws of search
  • Virginia; revision of laws search
  • Washington, George; as army commander search
  • Watson, John (1760–1841); witnesses documents search
  • William and Mary, College of; faculty of search